iOS 4 Programming Cookbook by Vandad Nahavandipoor


Summary: find solutions for typical iOS 4 related issues

iOS 4 Programming Cookbook was the first of cookbook series I have ever read. The idea of this series is to present recipes that will allow you to “prepare” piece of code that does “something”. Recipes are presented very consistent way through the description of the problem, answer for the particular problem and explanation of the given solution. Problems, that are discussed within the book, usually refer to issues that are elementary yet very commonly asked by introductory programmers. Book is divided into chapters that cover different aspects of iOS programming. You will find there answers to topics like view related issues, data management using Core Data, threading, multitasking, XML, and many other aspects of iOS 4 APIs. In general, I find this book interesting, however there are few drawbacks when it comes to details. First of all, you can’t treat this book as the only source of knowledge when it comes to learning iOS programming. You should treat it as a reference for quite common problems that people encounter, but not as a complete guide to programming. I’d suggest here buying another book that describes topics in greater details (e.g. Learning iPhone Programming). Another issue here is that some topics may be very misleading. If you have never used Objective-C before you will probably find it difficult to understand it through “Working with objects” chapter. I think that this section could be skipped at all. It doesn’t cover the Objective-C programming related techniques deeply. Even more, most of the topics that are discussed in this section you will find in any “programming in Objective-C” related title as well – but better explained. I would recommend this book only to people who want to have a starting point for some of the common tasks that have to be performed while programming any complex application. As a starting point for learning iOS programming – not really.

Product page:

O’Reilly: http://oreilly.com/catalog/9781449388225/
Amazon (in Books): iOS 4 Programming Cookbook: Solutions & Examples for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Apps
Amazon (Kindle): iOS 4 Programming Cookbook: Solutions & Examples for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Apps